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Outrank Your Competition on Google

If you’re in a competitive business, it’s good to outrank your competitors online. After all, when people click the search button, they often trust that the most relevant answer to their query will be at the top of the results. How do you outrank your competition online?

Here are some helpful tips:

You shouldn’t only focus on one keyword phrase to rank well for and don’t just check your results on one search engine. Yes, Google may be the one you strive to succeed with due to their status as the top search engine but don’t forget to see how you’re ranking with other search engines as well. They could be a great source of traffic. Keyword research is important and while your competitor might rank well for a specific popular keyword phrase, you could rank above them for several others that are highly relevant and highly searched as well.

Make sure you optimize for local SEO. This means that you strive to use long tail keyword phrases and optimize your site for local listings by always including the name of your city or town on your web pages and in your blog posts. Talk about your community on your site, use compelling titles, and work to appeal to local prospects as well as people that may be thinking about moving to your city.

Write a great meta description. At times, top ranked websites don’t get the most clicks. That’s because they neglect the important meta description that describes their page. Each one of your web pages should have a unique meta description and it should relate to the main keyword phrase(s) of that page. Some sites ranked as #2 or #3 will get chosen before the #1 ranked site because the meta description appears more relevant to the viewer because it contains the keywords they were searching for.

Even if a competitor outranks you that doesn’t mean they have to outsell you. By this logic it’s also important to create a great home page and create strong pages throughout your website. If your competitor hasn’t done a good job of this and they are ranked as #1 for a popular keyword phrase, your prospective customer may come back to that results page and click #2, #3, and so on --- until they find compelling entry page copy.

Examine the websites of your top competitors online. If they are ranking well for the words you’re interested in ranking for, try to deconstruct what they’ve done to get there. It’s possible that they are there as a default and you could easily surpass their rankings. It’s also possible that they’ve been working on search engine optimization for years and could be difficult to de-throne. You might look for an SEO company (such as ours) to help you.

Diversify your SEO strategy. Don’t just do on page SEO, work at off page efforts as well. Not only could they help boost your website’s rankings but this could help you dominate the first page so that even if you’ve got a top ten spot for your website, you could also have top ten spots for other sites, such as YouTube, Twitter, article directories, press release sites, and more. The more pages that point to your website, the better chance you’ll have of increasing your online visibility. Guest posts are also a great way to improve your rankings and get exposure on multiple sites that could drive direct Internet traffic your way.

Rankings are important. It’s important to do what you can to get to the top of Google results for important keywords related to your industry. If you need help, contact Professional Web Studio. We offer diversified online marketing strategies to help you get found and get chosen by customers.